


Lion and Wolf

by hiddencait



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Character Study, M/M, Vignette, ish?, not quite blatant shipping?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 20:43:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6344431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddencait/pseuds/hiddencait
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charles Vane is a lion among men, but Billy has never been prey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lion and Wolf

**Author's Note:**

> I legit do not even know what this is. I was hard at work on a Billy/OC apothecary fic, and this this showed up randomly. Hopefully it makes sense to some one else in the fandom LOL.

They call Charles Vane a lion among men, and Billy does not deny the resemblance of it in the tawny mane and the need to stalk other men as prey, to vie in this, a pirate’s savannah, for freedom and excellence above all else. 

A lion keeps no den, or so goes the saying. One that legend Teach was known to say, before the cub he thought to raise drove him from his territory and out into the sea, far from the shores Teach had known and conquered.

No, the men who sail under the Black are not wrong to fear Vane; nor are those who dare to desire him, for that matter. It is, perhaps, unsurprising that many of those latter men number amongst the former, as well. After all, there is a certain fascination that prey beasts have for those who could take their lives in an instant.

But Billy has never been prey.

So Vane might well be the lion some call him. And true, Billy might not match a big cat for its claws.

But within Billy does live a predator, as well.

A wolf perhaps, one bound to his pack of brothers to his own detriment. He thinks his oaths, that need instilled by his father to never turn his back on his promises, will likely lead to his death some not too distant day.

His death should have come to him so long before now: in the street when he fought the bastards who took him and chained in the bowels of a ship answering to the Royal Navy, under the lash when he refused to stop fighting out at sea, in the battle that brought him to this life under Flint’s command, to the sea herself too many times to count.

Death should have come to him on the deck that night facing Vane himself as his crew sought to take the Man O’ War. 

Billy knows well his own worth, knows the strength in his great size, and the skill with which he wields a weapon. There are few men who can hold their own against the lion on the hunt, and yet that night, Billy seemed to hold his own against him. Might have even won the day had the other men not interfered, throwing sheer numbers against Billy’s height and reach.

Still, despite that knowledge of his prowess and his memory of the battle, Billy wonders. Wonders about the words Vane spoke to him, of the value that lion saw in the wolf before him. Worth Vane had sought to bring aboard his crew by clever, if underhanded means. 

For the first time in years, he wonders if his life was deliberately spared that night. If the lion hesitated just enough to keep him alive.

It is not a comfortable thought for the wolf in him, that sense that he might owe his life to Charles Vane all unknowingly. 

Billy belongs to a pack, not a pride, he reminds himself. He’s sworn oaths to make it so.

Still, as Vane stalks their deck again, this time as an invited guest instead of assaulting predator, Billy cannot help but wonder what might have happened had he chosen to say “yes” in the cabin that night.

He cannot help but watch the lion make himself at home in Billy’s territory, and within Billy, the wolf begins to howl.


End file.
